Melanie Oudin hits a forehand in her US Open match on September 9, 2009.

American teenager Melanie Oudin startled the tennis world by beating three seeded opponents before succumbing to Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals of the US Open.  Though Oudin’s Cinderella run through the tournament is over, Bill gets an update on the US Open from tennis writer Bud Collins.

Things are heating up as drivers vie for the final eight spots in NASCAR’s championship series, the Chase to the Sprint Cup.  Outside of the track, NASCAR faces a tough economy and uncertain prospects.  Only A Game’s Karen Given examines NASCAR’s future.

With the return of the NFL this weekend Autumn is officially upon us.  Bill and Yahoo.com’s Dan Wetzel discuss the upcoming season’s big stories and Dan makes his postseason picks.

Life on Staten Island was simpler in 1959 when the Island was actually an island.  The Verrazano-Narrows bridge had yet to be built, community ties were stronger, and high school football was a badge of honor.  In his book, author Jay Price returns to those days and examines the transforming Staten Island community through the lens of an all-important Thanksgiving Day football game between the island’s rival high schools.  Bill discusses Price’s book Thanksgiving 1959: When One Corner of New York City Was Still Part of Small-Town America , and High School Football Was The Last Thing Guys Did for Love.

Bill and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss all of the week’s important sports news, including Allen Iverson’s new team, the opening of the NFL season, and a dynasty in the dubious sport of cricket-spitting.

This weekend some of basketball’s greatest players and coaches will be welcomed into the Basketball Hall of Fame.  Though a great honor, some of the inductees feel it’s slightly pre-mature.  Bill offers his take.

Most cyclists ride their bikes as a good source of exercise.  Some avid bikers, however, ride for the donuts.  Reporter Eugene Sonn strapped on his helmet for Allentown, Pennsylvania’s annual Labor Day Donut Derby and found the tastier side of cycling. ]]> http://www.onlyagame.org/2009/09/saturday-september-12-2009/feed/ 0 http://www.onlyagame.org/2008/11/nascar-mechanics-womens-college-basketball-and-giants-among-men/ http://www.onlyagame.org/2008/11/nascar-mechanics-womens-college-basketball-and-giants-among-men/#comments Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:18:01 +0000 ebailey http://www.onlyagame.org/?p=575
NASCAR Mechanics

NASCAR racing isn’t just about checkered flags and celebrity drivers. Only A Game’s Ron Schachter learns the ins and outs of NASCAR mechanics from the car design team at the Roush-Fenway racing complex in Concord, North Carolina.

MLB’s Shopping Season

As the holidays peek around the corner, Major League Baseball is gearing up for its own shopping season. Bill Littlefield talks with Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union- Tribune about the possible roster shake-ups and trades during this year’s MLB off-season.

Women’s College Basketball Season Preview
Will head coach Pat Summit and the Tennessee Lady Vols come back for another NCAA Championship in 2009? Bill Littlefield talks with Michelle Smith of the San Francisco Chronicle about the possible favorites for the women’s college basketball season.

A “Killer” Tribute

Only A Game’s Michelle Seaton pays her respects to late pro wrestler Walter “Killer” Kowalski at his memorial wrestling show in Malden, Massachusetts.

Saying Goodbye to Herb Score
Bill Littlefield talks with former ESPN executive Dick Glover on the recent passing of baseball phenom and broadcaster Herb Score.

The Mighty Tennessee Titans and More with Charlie Pierce
Bill and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss the Tennessee Titans road to perfection, Tony Romo’s return, and the New Jersey Nets tackle unemployment.

“Giants Among Men”
Bill Littlefield talks with author Jack Cavanaugh about his new book, Giants Among Men: How Robustelli, Huff, Gifford, and the Giants Made New York a Football Town and Changed the NFL.

Sure, the Chicago Cubs haven’t won it all in a century.  But the one thing fans of the loveable losers always have is their beloved ballpark, Wrigley Field.  However, with the Cubbies and their yard up for sale, fans are beginning to worry  that this historic park could be on the verge of a face-lift, or even a name change.  Yolanda Perdomo reports from Chicago, where the fans want to make sure nobody messes with history.

Scrambling Toward the Finish Line
The NBA’s Western Conference showcases a majority of the league’s best teams.  The problem?  Some really good squads won’t have a chance to play past the regular season. Bill Littlefield talks to Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post about the Nuggets’ drive for the final spot in the incredibly tough West.  Also, Kevin Hench of Fox Sports tries to clear the somewhat murky water and figure out who’s getting in and who’s going home, and ponders whether anyone, East or West, can topple the Boston Celtics.

One Helluva Ride: How NASCAR Swept the Nation
What’s better than tens of thousands of your closest friends gathering to watch automobiles zip around at speeds over 200 miles an hour?  Not much, according to Liz Clarke, author of the new book, One Helluva Ride: How NASCAR Swept the Nation.  She talks with Bill Littlefield about her book and the sport that captivates so many people, digging a little deeper into the world where “right turn” is a dirty word.

Barack Goes Bowling and More, With Charlie Pierce
Bill and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss: The Final Four in men’s and women’s hoops, the Boston Three Party on their way to the Eastern Conference playoffs, and a Presidential hopeful’s inability to crack the half-century mark at the bowling lanes.  

Letters
Bill digs into the listener mailbag to find at least one marriage proposal to Charlie Pierce, and some people who think Rutgers deserves more love.

This Ain’t Your Middle School Geometry Class
Everyone has his own way to pass the time.  While some people engage in conventional efforts like competitive sports or writing poetry, a group of math prodigies got together at Harvard University in March to put their own passion on display.  Rachel Paiste was at the annual Pi Day celebration, where entrants put their brains to the test, memorizing hundreds or even thousands of digits of Pi.

Did you ever wonder why auto racing is so massively popular?  Liz Clarke’s new book One Helluva Ride examines where the sport came from, and how fans of NASCAR have become so passionately devoted.  Bill Littlefield reviews the book, and finds that there’s more than meets the eye in the land of left turns.

This is a book for people who love watching auto races, certainly. It is full of stories of their heroes.

But it is also a book for people who are mystified by the popularity of the sport. Liz Clarke tells NASCAR stories with energy and enthusiasm. She writes as if there’s nowhere she’d rather be than the track, and as if nobody could have better friends than the men about whom she writes. In short, she makes a case for the charms of a sport which might look like it’s just a lot of guys going fast and turning left in brightly painted cars.

She has lots of material with which to work. NASCAR’s history can certainly be described as colorful. The first drivers supported themselves by running moonshine in the same cars they were racing. When Bill France “organized” their activity into a spectacle that would hugely benefit him, the drivers shrugged off the fact that France would have everything to gain and nothing to lose, while they would have everything to lose and precious little to gain.

One of defining features of NASCAR is the passion the sport has inspired in its fans. In some cases, “worship” is more like it. People who root for particular drivers don’t just wear caps and t-shirts with that driver’s number on them; they have the driver’s image tattooed across their backs. And, by golly, they regard the sport as theirs, and theirs alone. When the Charlotte Observer conducted an on-line survey to see what NASCAR fans thought about the sport’s attempt to attract foreign drivers and a more diverse fan base, fifty four percent of the respondents checked the box marked “It’s wrong, and it troubles me,” while only seventeen percent marked “It’s great. Fresh talent might make for better racing.”

Liz Clarke is a big fan of auto racing, but even she acknowledges that globalization won’t come easy to a sport built on that sort of bed rock.

This week on “Only A Game,” we review the myriad sounds of baseball…from the congressional hearing room to audibly distinct ballparks across the country. We’ll talk NASCAR at Daytona, too, which will probably be much louder.

Congress Takes On Steroids
Play audio
Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee appeared before Congress earlier this week to answer questions about performance enhancing drugs in baseball. Bill Littlefield examines what was said and then talks to Princeton history professor Julian Zelizer about what place Congress has in investigating sports.

The Big Aristotle Goes to the Desert
Play audio
As the NBA trade deadline approaches, some Western Conference forces have already made impact moves, with the Los Angeles Lakers trading for Pau Gasol, and the Dallas Mavericks trying to snag Jason Kidd. But perhaps the most surprising move so far was the up-tempo Phoenix Suns’ acquistion of Shaquille O’Neal. Steve Goldstein of KJZZ Phoenix reports.

NASCAR’s Big Weekend
Play audio
On the eve of the Daytona 500, Bill Littlefield talks NASCAR with Matt Crossman of The Sporting News. Among the hot topics are a convuluted qualifying system, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s switch to Hendrick Motorsports and flaring tensions between some of the sports’ top drivers.

The Other Junior Hockey Leagues
Play audio
Canada’s Junior Hockey Leagues have been a long-time breeding ground for NHL prospects. However, junior hockey in this country is much less established. Ron Schachter visited the Central States Hockey League, and has this report on Ohio’s share of the junior hockey market.

Dave Silk on Bringing Back the NHL
Play audio
Former NHL Pro and 1980 Olympic Gold Medalist Dave Silk comments on the NHL, and what it needs to do to climb back into prominence in North America. As Silk says, it all starts with the nickname.

 Congress Investigates Steroids…Again and More With Charlie Pierce
Play audio
Bill Littlefield and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss: Roger Clemens on Capitol Hill, scandal in Bloomington, and Westminster’s numero Uno.

 The Sweet Sounds of Baseball
Play audio
Tom Porcello, an anthropology professor at Vassar Collge, discusses the distinctive sounds of Major League Baseball ballparks with Bill Littlefield. From the traditional organ to the rifts of Van Morrison, Porcello tells us that each venue creates its own atmosphere through sound.